Journal of Posthuman Studies (forthcoming)
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Abstract |
Friendship is an important part of the good life. While many roboticists are eager to create friend-like robots, many philosophers and ethicists are concerned. They argue that robots cannot really be our friends. Robots can only fake the emotional and behavioural cues we associate with friendship. Consequently, we should resist the drive to create robot friends. In this article, I argue that the philosophical critics are wrong. Using the classic virtue-ideal of friendship, I argue that robots can plausibly be considered our virtue friends - that to do so is philosophically reasonable. Furthermore, I argue that even if you do not think that robots can be our virtue friends, they can fulfil other important friendship roles, and can complement and enhance the virtue friendships between human beings.
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Keywords | Friendship Robots Virtue Friends Aristotle Good life Applied Ethics Technoethics Technology Humanity |
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References found in this work BETA
Granny and the Robots: Ethical Issues in Robot Care for the Elderly.Amanda Sharkey & Noel Sharkey - 2012 - Ethics and Information Technology 14 (1):27-40.
Will Life Be Worth Living in a World Without Work? Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of Life.John Danaher - 2017 - Science and Engineering Ethics 23 (1):41-64.
The Symbolic-Consequences Argument in the Sex Robot Debate.John Danaher - 2017 - In John Danaher & Neil McArthur (eds.), Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Citations of this work BETA
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.Vincent C. Müller - 2020 - In Edward Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Palo Alto, Cal.: CSLI, Stanford University. pp. 1-70.
Robot Betrayal: A Guide to the Ethics of Robotic Deception.John Danaher - 2020 - Ethics and Information Technology 22 (2):117-128.
Debate: What is Personhood in the Age of AI?David J. Gunkel & Jordan Joseph Wales - 2021 - AI and Society 36:473–486.
The Moral Standing of Social Robots: Untapped Insights from Africa.Nancy S. Jecker, Caesar A. Atiure & Martin Odei Ajei - 2022 - Philosophy and Technology 35 (2):1-22.
Unique Ethical Challenges for the 21st Century: Online Technology and Virtue Education.Matthew Dennis & Tom Harrison - 2021 - Journal of Moral Education 50 (3):251-266.
View all 14 citations / Add more citations
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2019-01-04
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2,501 ( #1,590 of 2,504,831 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
418 ( #1,010 of 2,504,831 )
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